2 Samuel 24:16–25

^16wAnd when the ⁴angel stretched out His hand over Jerusalem to destroy it, ^xthe Lord relented from the destruction, and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “It is enough; now restrain your hand.” And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of ⁵Araunah the Jebusite.

¹⁷Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking the people, and said, “Surely ^yI have sinned, and I have done wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Let Your hand, I pray, be against me and against my father’s house.”

The Altar on the Threshing Floor

¹⁸And Gad came that day to David and said to him, ^z“Go up, erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” ¹⁹So David, according to the word of Gad, went up as the Lord commanded. ²⁰Now Araunah looked, and saw the king and his servants coming toward him. So Araunah went out and bowed before the king with his face to the ground.

²¹Then Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?”

^aAnd David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you, to build an altar to the Lord, that ^bthe plague may be withdrawn from the people.”

²²Now Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up whatever seems good to him. ^cLook, here are oxen for burnt sacrifice, and threshing implements and the yokes of the oxen for wood. ²³All these, O king, Araunah has given to the king.”

And Araunah said to the king, “May the Lord your God ^daccept you.”

²⁴Then the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing.” So ^eDavid bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. ²⁵And David built there an altar to the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. ^fSo the Lord heeded the prayers for the land, and ^gthe plague was withdrawn from Israel.